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Phir Sē
(pronounced “fear-say”)Sudiobook pronunciations list, confirmed by Wildbow is a member of an Indian Thanda group. Personality Referred to as a "monster" by Indian capes,“He’s one of the reasons the American girl’s PRT can exist,” Kismet said. “When they talk about disbanding it, the PRT only reminds them that monsters like this lurk elsewhere.” The man slowly turned to face us. He wasn’t an old man, but he moved like one. “Monsters?” I asked. “I’ve fought monsters. Just tell me what kind of monster he is.” “The kind that is too smart for all of our good,” Kismet said. He’d frozen the moment the man set eyes on him. - Excerpt from Crushed 24.3 he spoke of the importance of having to use "harsh justice", crushing enemies who were not open to reason.“You mentioned how you have to be hard, heavy handed if you’re going to succeed in a situation where your enemies are as scary as the people you and I have gone up against.” “Yes. Heavy handed. Like the judge’s hammer…” “Gavel,” I supplied. “The gavel. Harsh justice. Crush the enemies who cannot be converted to your side or convinced to do otherwise.” - Excerpt from Crushed 24.4 He described the world as a "war" between humanity and all "monsters", from the Endbringers to local organised crime, ruthlessness being a necessary trait. He claimed the government painted his side as evil because they preferred the criminals.Phir Sē said something in Punjabi, then turned to me, “Is rude, to speak in language you cannot understand. He call me evil, so I not speak to him further. But you understand, do you not? You know what form this war take? The danger we all face, from monsters like that, from others?” “I don’t think many top the Endbringers,” I said. “Maybe not so. Maybe. But you have tried being cold. Killing the enemy, yes? Because ruthless is only way to win this war.” “I met some people. I think they were your adversaries,” I said. “Glowing eyes? Reflective? Like mirrors?” “Yes. Enemy. They petty evils that walk this city. Organize crime. Slave, prostitute, murder, mercenary. My side, we root out corrupt. Ruthless. Government prefer them to us. Paint us as evil, pay them to carry on. But you know what this is like, yes?” - Excerpt from Crushed 24.3 He didn't flinch when his companion executed a cape for trying to run.“Stay,” Phir Sē said. His voice was quiet, but it was clear he expected to be heeded. Kismet glanced up at the glow, then turned to run. He wasn’t even turned all the way around when there was a flicker. A man appeared just in front of Kismet. A teleporter. And his forearm extended through Kismet’s chest. Then he flickered, like a bad lightbulb, and he was gone, leaving only a gaping hole where the arm had been. Kismet collapsed, dead. A teleporter who can bypass the Manton effect. “Stay,” Phir Sē told us, again. He hadn’t even flinched, but the space between his bushy eyebrows furrowed as he stared down at Kismet. - Excerpt from Crushed 24.3 Phir Se was willing to make extremely hard choices and gambles. He was willing to risk the destruction of the city his daughter lived in in exchange for a chance of destroying Behemoth. He once sacrificed his wife and sons to ensure a "monster" would remain dead.“I have done it, Weaver,” Phir Sē told me. “My wife, my sons, years ago. A similar problem on a smaller scale. I can walk through minutes, I could have walked back to save them, but I let them die because it meant a monster would remain gone. What merit is a gamble, a sacrifice, if you stake things that matter nothing to you?”- Excerpt from Crushed 24.4 He described Weaver's hard choice in changing sides to the heroes as "to be respected".“I do remember. You had much power. You turned it down.” “It wasn’t for me,” I said. “You are more comfortable where you are now?” he asked. “Now as in here, in this fight, or as a hero?” “Either. Both,” he stated. “Honestly? No on both counts. I’m still figuring it out.” He inclined his head. “This is to be respected. Making hard choice. The challenge of the young adult. To find identity.” “Thank you,” I said, still wary. Everything about Kismet’s reaction was telling me this guy was to be feared, so I had to step carefully. - Excerpt from Crushed 24.3 Relationships Family He had a civilian identity which he spent most of his time in, waiting for more powerful Thanda to have need of his abilities. He felt that interacting with his friends and family as a civilian made him "feel more human than I am".His stare was cold as he met my eyes. “One in three. That is… perhaps unfair. No matter. If I’m wrong, we lose this city. If I’m right, we kill Behemoth. I would take those odds, Weaver. I would take them, I would watch this city be wiped from the earth, knowing that people I am fond of would die. I live in a civilian guise most days, waiting until I have a task from those more powerful than I. I would perhaps be killing the butcher I talk to every day when I walk to the store for food. I would kill the widow who lives next door to me, her child, if they have not evacuated. I have mentioned my daughter, much like you in her abundance of faith in people.” “I wouldn’t exactly call myself an idealist to that extent,” I said. I paused. “Phir Sē-” We’d started talking at the same time. He talked over me, half of his attention on the screens. “I will take this gamble and perhaps kill those people in the process. I will kill those people who can make me smile and feel more human than I am, I will grieve their deaths, and then I will take that gamble again. Because one city, however grand, is worth that chance.” - Excerpt from Crushed 24.4 Weaver He barely knew the girl for an hour but Weaver had a profound effect on his life. He was aware of her from american television, including seizing Brockton Bay. Her history and choices may have been one of the reasons that he allowed her to stay and talk with him. He stated that he would have killed her for trying to trick him "if I did not feel need for outsider to challenge my ideas", but didn't seem particularly angry.I could see the small smile on Phir Sē’s face, disappointed and proud and a condemnation at the same time. “I watch you. In reflection of screen. You set him up, to put yourself in my good will.” ... “I guess I did,” I said. I made the spiders cut the threads between us. He shook a finger at me, “I was not born yesterday. This silliness could have gotten you killed. Would have, if I did not feel need for outsider to challenge my ideas.” - Excerpt from Crushed 24.4 Reputation Kismet described him as "too smart for all of our good". Appearance He was in his mid-thirties, and reasonably handsome, with a beard. His costume was opulent and clean; an indigo robe, a gold chain with a sapphire set in it, a gold chain for a belt and a gold sash. When Weaver met him, he was exhausted, having not slept in three days - slow and slumped as if he were much older. He had dark circles under his eyes, his skin was pale and his beard and hair were bedraggled, although his clothing remained immaculate.I stared at him. He was young, no older than thirty-five, but the lines of his face, the slumped posture, the slowness with which he moved… they spoke of a horrendous exhaustion. - Excerpt from Crushed 24.4 He was disheveled, with dark circles under his eyes, his skin pale, his beard and hair bedraggled. His clothing, by contrast, was opulent, clean: a rich indigo robe, a sapphire set in a gold chain, a gold chain for a belt, and a golden sash. And above him, the energy. There were two golden discs, and something almost alive seemed to crackle between them. - Excerpt from Crushed 24.3 Abilities and Powers Phir Sē has the ability to make golden doorways back in time a few minutes.“A weapon,” he said. “A… how do you Americans say it? Time bomb? Only this is joke.” “He makes portals,” Kismet said. “Using them, he can send things back in time. Something goes in portal B, comes out of portal A a few minutes earlier. Or the other way around.” “Or, as I discover, I make loop,” Phir Sē said. “Weaponize. Simple light, captured in one moment, redoubled many times over. I move gate, and that light will pour forth and clean.” - Excerpt from Crushed 24.3 This allowed him to travel back and change past events. He could open the portals in different locations, such as in the air above him or beneath enemies he was watching on a computer screen. Time Bombs He can use his power to double and re-double light for long periods of time, creating powerful blasts of energy when released. While it charged, one of these "bombs" resembled two golden discs floating in midair with energy crackling between them.“I tell you because you are ruthless, Weaver. Do not stop me,” he said. “I die, focus waver, time bomb explode. Aimless, no direction.” “Indiscriminate,” I supplied a better word. “Indiscriminate,” Phir Sē echoed me. “India gone. You die, even down here.” I raised my head, staring up at the two golden discs and the current that seemed to run between them. I would have thought it would be brighter. - Excerpt from Crushed 24.3 This photon derived energy is likely mixed with some manner of temporal power.Keep in mind that in virtually every case where a Endbringer suffers a deep and grievous wound, some space/time/reality warping is in full sway. Even for Phir Se, you could suggest there is something temporal infused into the stored energy, giving it more oomph. -Wildbow on Reddit This technique required a degree of precise timing; when he started it too early he was forced to re-start.He looked like he might drop any minute, like he’d barely eaten, hadn’t slept… “How long has it been since you slept?” I asked. “Three days. We thought an Endbringer would attack soon, so I prepared, to be ready when the time came. Too early, I had to stop, restart. This time, he came, but I am weary. The talking, is good. Distracting without being dangerous. Continue, please.” What happens if he nods off? I wondered, looking at the ‘time bomb’. The same thing he’d stated would happen if he were killed or knocked out? - Excerpt from Crushed 24.4 If he was killed or his focus wavered too much, all the accumulated energy would be released indiscriminately, destroying the area around him. On one occasion, he created a blast strong enough to blast away around 80% of Behemoth's body.Phir Sē’s portal opened beneath Behemoth’s feet, aimed upward, and a plume of light speared into the sky, consuming Behemoth, covering him. Eidolon’s power held. He’d had the situation explained, had been given time to let his power build up to full strength, and his passenger had supplied something with a durability on par with Clockblocker’s ability. Inviolable. “That’ll do,” Imp said, quiet. The light continued to flow upward, a narrow column no more than fifty feet across, billowing out only slightly as it reached the top of Eidolon’s barrier, parting smoke and clouds in a circular ring, revealing the intensely blue sky above. The entire sky seemed to brighten as the light dissipated beyond our atmosphere. Phir Sē’s light faded, and the barrier collapsed. Dust continued to fill the area, plumes of it. Behemoth lurched forward. Not quite Behemoth, but a skeleton, something like a skeleton. Emaciated, a black-red frame dripping with ichor, it had all of the key features, the basic underlying structure with the horns and the gaping mouth, the claws and the way the shoulders were broad enough to host his bulky frame, but a good eighty percent of him had been torn away, shredded. A skeleton covered in a veneer of meat. - Excerpt from Crushed 24.4Phir Sē’s light had cleared smoke and dust from the sky, though it had been almost entirely directed upward, with concentric rings still marking the skyline. Smoke was free to rise, and Behemoth was in plain sight. He was moving on three limbs, planting hands on the ruined, half-toppled and flame-scorched buildings to stay more upright. His body, though, was a mix of high contrasts. His flesh, what little was visible through the black ichor that dripped from his frame, glowed a silver-white. The remaining material of his claws, teeth and horns remained black. ... Behemoth emerged from the smoke. He was more robust than he had been, but that wasn’t saying much. Seventy percent burned away, perhaps. The regeneration had slowed, but it was still functioning to a degree. He’d recuperated, built his strength, and he’d used the time to, what? - Excerpt from Crushed 24.5 He claimed it would destroy India if it were released indiscriminately. History Background His career started sometime in 2001, over the course of it he lost most of his idealism.“I have been doing this for ten years. I admire you for retaining your…” he trailed off. “Idealism?” “Not a word I’m familiar with, Weaver. Faith?” “Faith works.” “I have none left, after ten years. No faith. We are a wretched, petty species, and we have been given power to destroy ourselves with.” - Excerpt from Crushed 24.4 On one occasion, his wife and sons died at around the same time as a "monster", possibly linked to the event. He could have used his power to go back in time and save them, but chose not to so that his enemy would remain dead. Behemoth vs New Delhi Phir Sē and his group prognosticated an attack by an Endbringer, their prediction was slightly off however, forcing the time traveler to try setting his trump card up again. When Behemoth finally attacked New Delhi Phir Sē had created a powerful "time bomb" he hoped could destroy the endbringer, having stayed awake for three days in order for it to reach full power at the correct time. Weaver was able to find the complex where he was holed up and eventually convinced him to allow her to coordinate the strike with the defending forces.Crushed 24.3 This eventually allowed Eidolon to create a forcefield around the beast that would contain the blast if it deflected it. Phir Sē thanked Weaver for her help before evacuating the complex. Later, Turanta reported that he was killed near the end of the encounter with Behemoth."We will assist," Turanta said. "Sifara, Bahu and I, others beneath us in our organization. I cannot speak for my fellow brothers, but I will ask them because we all owe a debt. Our brother died, but Weaver helped to make it not for nothing." "Phir Sē died?" I asked, surprised. "At the hands of the First, very late." - Scarab 25.5 This is likely accurate as no similar maneuvers were seen in the intervening years. Fanart Gallery PVnP2E1.jpg|Image by somnolentSlumber on Discord. Trivia *In Hindi Phir Sē (फिर से) means "once again". Category:Characters Category:Males Category:Shaker Category:Mover Category:Heroes Category:Thanda Category:Blaster Category:Deceased Category:Worm Characters